Is becoming a lawyer a mistake?

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by HomerJ

So we have a consensus that the mid level health profession is the **** in terms of work/reward. You get to MD and it's too much damn work but I guess if you bust your balls over the hump and get into something like dermatology, cosmetic surgery it gets sweet again.

Man...now I'm wondering why I got those grad degrees and an MBA after I got my RN!

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Coho

+2. I'll second dentistry as a job with easy training and high pay. However, IMO, guys who are dentists are pussies. Be a man and go to med school.

All snobbery aside, nursing is not a bad profession either.


Nurses rule.

 

[Coho]

or neurosurgery, or any surgical specialties for that matter. Don't be fooled by the MD-ologists. Those guys don't make ****. They just tell patients the problem; they don't fix it.

Originally Posted by HomerJ

So we have a consensus that the mid level health profession is the **** in terms of work/reward. You get to MD and it's too much damn work but I guess if you bust your balls over the hump and get into something like dermatology, cosmetic surgery it gets sweet again.

 

[Coho]

maybe you should upgrade to NP from that point. I heard nurse practitioners are making almost as much as GPs, and they have more opportunities for employment than GPs.

Originally Posted by Piobaire

Man...now I'm wondering why I got those grad degrees and an MBA after I got my RN!

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Ambulance Chaser

If you're a lawyer not in BigLaw, you won't be rich.

This is at best overstated. John Edwards didn't go Big Law, for example, and he did ok.

 

[dopey]

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

This is at best overstated. John Edwards didn't go Big Law, for example, and he did ok.

This is correct. BigLaw can make you comfortable. Only tort law can make you rich.

 

[topbroker]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

If teachers suddenly started to have an average graduation salary of 75k, we would see a marked increase in the quality of teachers IMO.

I believe this too. All these bright students aren't going into law because they are so darned attracted to the law; many are doing so because, rightly or wrongly, they perceive it as a "ticket." Make K-12 teaching a ticket, too, and see how many more more fine students would flock to it. They wouldn't all make it; teaching is tough. But the level of teaching would rise.

Benjamin Barber once wrote that America shows it is serious about something by spending money on it. He reasoned that if we were serious about education, teachers would naturally be paid better. The market expresses the values of the culture, after all.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by HomerJ

You can definitely exceed 100k with a PhD in biosci in academia and in industry.

I know one faculty member who earns 130k for 9 months.

So I guess this thread has drifted a bit to what are the other "mistake" fields and what are "hot" fields.

It is very difficult and takes a long time. You do your phd and then you do post-doc. After you have a bunch of years of experience in industry you MIGHT be making that much. It is definitely NOT the way to go if your primary concern is money.

 

[topbroker]

Let's not forget, with all this talk of feathering our financial nests, that the average American full-time worker makes about $40,000 per year (which means that half of all American workers do not make $40,000 per year -- think about it); and the average American household makes about $46,000 (the surprisingly slight difference between the two figures is explained by the ever-increasing number of single-person households).

Even the average full-time worker with a bachelor's degree makes only about $51,000 per year. That's not the average entry-level salary for college graduates; that's the average for all workers who hold a bachelor's degree but nothing higher. Even if you include graduate and professional degree holders, the average only rises to $56,00O per year.

We should all count our blessings.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Coho

maybe you should upgrade to NP from that point. I heard nurse practitioners are making almost as much as GPs, and they have more opportunities for employment than GPs.

I was being facetious. My income is somewhat north of any numbers we have dropped so far.

 

[HomerJ]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

It is very difficult and takes a long time. You do your phd and then you do post-doc. After you have a bunch of years of experience in industry you MIGHT be making that much. It is definitely NOT the way to go if your primary concern is money.

Tell me about it.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by lawyerdad

This is at best overstated. John Edwards didn't go Big Law, for example, and he did ok.

Yeah, but he stretched out the collar on all his sweaters

 

[HomerJ]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

I was being facetious. My income is somewhat north of any numbers we have dropped so far.

Originally Posted by mafoofan

~$350k

 

[dtmt]

Originally Posted by topbroker

Let's not forget, with all this talk of feathering our financial nests, that the average American full-time worker makes about $40,000 per year (which means that half of all American workers do not make $40,000 per year -- think about it);

No, the *average* doesn't mean that.... you're thinking of the median, which is actually a bit higher. Normally I wouldn't be this picky, I am just surprised that someone who is presumably working in a financial field doesn't understand 101 level stastics....

 

[topbroker]

Originally Posted by dtmt

No, the *average* doesn't mean that.... you're thinking of the median, which is actually a bit higher. Normally I wouldn't be this picky, I am just surprised that someone who is presumably working in a financial field doesn't understand 101 level stastics....

Not in a financial field (there are many kinds of brokers), but point taken.

I should have been more careful with my terminology. The figures were taken from census numbers on Wikipedia.